America's Road to Fame

Chapter 146 Quotation for Ali Shares
"The second thing." Chen William said to Yang Zhiyuan: "I hope to acquire the shares of Ali in Yahoo's hands."

Hearing his words, Yang Zhiyuan looked at Chen William with a little surprise, and said after a while, "That's not easy, William, how much do you want? Although the shares were bought for 10 billion US dollars at the time, the current price Not cheap."

Hearing Yang Zhiyuan's words, William Chen felt hehe. At that time, the cash paid by Yahoo was far from that much. One of them, Yahoo China, was priced at hundreds of millions of dollars. To be honest, the so-called 10 billion dollars was not small.

"I know, Jerry, I hope to acquire all 40% of Ali's shares held by you. I heard that you have had some unpleasantness with Jack Ma recently, and you are quite complaining about his wish to split Alipay."

The fact is also the same. Yahoo recently had some unpleasant quarrels with Ali’s Boss Ma. The reason is that in order for Alipay to obtain the first batch of third-party payment licenses, Ma Boss hopes to split it from Ali and make it controlled by all mainland capital. , because there were regulations in this regard at the time.

But Yahoo believes that their shareholding itself includes the Alipay project, and now Boss Ma is dissatisfied with this move, which will damage their interests by splitting Alipay alone.

This incident not only affected the relationship between Yang Zhiyuan and Boss Ma, but also the CEO of Yahoo at this time, Carol Bartz, known as the Iron Lady of Silicon Valley, even criticized Boss Ma. Everyone's eyes.

"You know, William, I have stepped down as CEO now, you should discuss this matter with Ms. Bartz, and from my personal point of view, I am still very optimistic about Ali's development and do not want to sell shares , at least not now.”

Yang Zhiyuan said lightly.

"Although you have stepped down as CEO, you are still the chief of Yahoo, aren't you? And with all due respect, Yahoo's situation is not good now. I know that your advertising revenue has fallen sharply recently, and you have been pulled down too far by Google, so I don't think it's a better choice for Yahoo to have been guarding these stocks of Alibaba."

As the subprime mortgage crisis spread to more industries, Yahoo was also deeply affected, and its advertising business fell sharply.Although those companies have the need for promotion and advertising at any time, they will choose more effective methods and reduce advertising investment in other channels during this difficult period.

Therefore, there will be a situation where advertising resources are gathered to top companies, and Google's advertising business has even increased, because advertisers are more willing to invest in them on balance.And correspondingly, Yahoo's advertising business has been greatly reduced.

"Don't you want to hear my offer? Jerry, Yahoo is fundamentally a search business. If it were me, I would rather use Ali's stock in exchange for funds to acquire and develop Yahoo instead of shrinking the main business and finally becoming a company that only holds Fund companies with shares in other companies, I believe you don’t want the company you founded to end up like this.”

It may be Chen William's words that finally moved Yang Zhiyuan. After thinking about it, he asked: "How much are you willing to pay for Ali shares? You must know that the price is too low, and the board of directors will not agree."

William Chen knew that after Carol Butz took office, he cut expenses through drastic layoffs and closed many poorly managed businesses.Therefore, on her side, there will be no obstacles to the sale of Ali's shares. As long as Yang Zhiyuan is convinced, his acquisition will be half successful, and the rest will be nothing more than the price.

Thinking of this, William Chen said directly:

"I'm willing to spend $40 billion in cash to buy your shares in Ali."

"It's a bit low." Yang Zhiyuan shook his head and said, "You know, earlier this year, those shares were worth at least 60 billion U.S. dollars. With your current bid, I'm afraid it will be difficult to satisfy the board of directors."

"You also said that that was the previous price. Jerry, you know the current situation. Many stock prices have been cut in half. Even Alibaba's stock price listed in HK has been greatly affected. At that time, I still want to buy it at the highest price in its history. You should think this way, although this price is lower than before, but now the valuation of all other companies has also dropped a lot. In fact, if it is necessary to acquire, this It is also the best opportunity for Yahoo, with the cash, your purchasing power will not decrease in any way, but it is the best opportunity for Yahoo to grow in the midst of the crisis."

"That is to say, William, the final decision still depends on what the board of directors say. Also, does Ali's Jack Ma know about your acquisition?"

"I haven't talked to that side yet, because I need your approval first before I can go ahead with this acquisition, but I believe that I can convince that side."

"Everything has to be discussed by the board of directors before a final decision can be made, William, but I think your bid needs to be more sincere."

Yang Zhiyuan said noncommittally.

"Then I will formally submit my offer to Yahoo immediately, Jerry, but I hope you can make them understand that Yahoo used to be a great company, but before that, it missed too many opportunities, and now it cannot continue to miss , if this matter drags on for too long, I am afraid it will not be a good thing not only for me, but also for Yahoo.”

……

So, on the second day, William Chen called Nelson, and he formally submitted a proposal to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to acquire their 40% stake in Ali with US$40 billion in cash.

William Chen, on the other hand, took a flight directly from Los Angeles to Huaguo. He had already contacted Ali's boss Ma, hoping to meet with him about this matter.

After receiving the news from William Chen, Boss Ma was extremely shocked, and even doubted the authenticity of his words at the time.After all, he knows that the shares held by Yahoo are worth more than 60 billion US dollars. Although Ali's stock price in Hong Kong stocks has been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States recently, it has been a bit depressed, but it should not be bought by the other party.

He first came into contact with Chen William because the other party invested in Huayi Company at that time. At that time, he also specially got to know this person. He was indeed a young billionaire, but his assets should be at most 10 billion US dollars. Now suddenly He couldn't help being shocked when he said that he wanted to buy so many shares in Ali.

In fact, Boss Ma has long wanted to repurchase these shares in Yahoo’s hands, especially after the recent confrontation with Yahoo over the Alipay incident, he has increasingly felt the threat of Yahoo holding 40% of Ali’s shares.

When Yahoo bought a stake in Ali, it handed over the voting rights of part of the shares to Boss Ma for a period of 10 years, which will expire in 2015.Even so, Yahoo held too many shares. At that time, money was urgently needed, and there was no way to do it. But after recovering, Boss Ma has been planning to reduce Ali's shareholding.

But unfortunately, at this time, we haven't found a strong enough partner to buy back the stock, because Yahoo's Ali stock is too valuable now.In Chen William's previous life, it was not until a few years later that Boss Ma finally united with a group of companies in the mainland that supported him and invested 76 billion US dollars before repurchasing half of the shares held by Yahoo.

At this time, although he was still a little puzzled, he gritted his teeth and called Yang Zhiyuan to inquire about the situation when he heard that William Chen was going to buy Yahoo's shares.In addition, Cai Zhongxin, his military adviser in capital operation, was also invited to help him find out information about William Chen.

When William Chen arrived in Hangzhou, China, Boss Ma had already learned from Yang Zhiyuan that the funds under William Chen's investment company had recently made huge profits due to short selling during the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Absolutely have the strength to buy Ali shares in the hands of Yahoo.

And Nielsen of Meta Investment Company has indeed formally submitted a request to Yahoo for US$40 billion to acquire their shares in Ali. Yahoo is also very interested in this. After all, at this moment of economic crisis, it is possible to obtain such a huge amount of cash. It is really a good opportunity for the company's development and acquisition. No one can refuse this kind of temptation.

It's just that the two sides are still negotiating on the price, and there is no result yet.

Ever since John Paulson sent an email to investors of Fund No. 3, the news that Meta Investment Company shorted the subprime mortgage crisis and achieved great success is no longer a secret. William Chen also expected this. After all, every day The company can receive countless calls from investors asking about investing in Fund No. 3.

In New York alone, Goldman Sachs has held three fundraising receptions with John Paulson, and the intentional funds raised so far have exceeded 20 billion US dollars.In the next few days, they will move to other cities until the 50 billion fundraising quota is full.

　ask for a ticket
　　
　
(End of this chapter)